Lonely Planet picks the world's most amazing train rides

Lonely Planet’s new book "Amazing Train Journeys" (Oct. 16, 2018, $25.00) spotlights 60 of the world’s greatest, most memorable routes, as selected by its train-loving travel experts. From epic international routes to commuter lines to classic heritage railroad tracks, it takes readers through mountain peaks, scenic countryside and past dramatic coastlines, beautifully illustrating the advantages and freedom unique to traveling by rail. Here are some highlights:

The Darjeeling Toy Train, India

Distance: 55 miles.
Time: Seven-eight hours.

India’s narrow-gauge steam railways are the stuff of legend, and the bottle-blue Darjeeling Toy Train is the nation’s lead engine. The ride from the Bengal plains to Darjeeling travels past emerald-green tea plantations and precariously balanced, tin-roofed townships, while clouds tumble down the looming massif of Mount Khangchendzonga. Sure, steam engines are now only used for a small section of the route, and most people rumble into Darjeeling by diesel power, but this iconic mountain journey still serves up memories of the Raj, when teatime in Darjeeling was as English as jodhpurs, jungles and pyjamas.

More:Trains, glorious trains: Best rail photos and galleries

Baikal-Amur Mainline, Russia

Distance: 2,687 miles. 
Time: Four days or more.

Here’s a question that would confound even ardent railway anoraks. Which line runs through over 2,500 miles of Siberian wilderness, connects remote settlements where temperatures sink to -76°F in winter and was envisaged as the greatest construction project in the history of the Soviet Union? The Trans-Siberian? Nope, it’s the Baikal– Amur Mainline, better known as the BAM – the rogue sibling of the infinitely more famous railway to the south. Built the better part of a century after the Trans-Sib, the BAM is colder, remoter and traverses scenery that is every bit as spectacular, but its rails are traveled by barely any tourists.

Colombo to Badulla, Sri Lanka

Distance: 181 miles.
Time: Nine-10 hours.

One of many unforgettable things about Sri Lanka is the variety and intensity of the color green. Fortunately for train aficionados, there is no better way to appreciate the country’s full verdant spectrum than an all-day rail journey from urban gardens at sea level to tea plantations in the Hill Country via brain-spinning sensory doses of jungle and forest, paddy field and palm tree, mountain and valley, national parks ... and human habitation too. This is no showcase for speed or high tech, though. Instead, it is a slow case for enjoying one of the most scenic train trips in the world.

Mandalay to Lashio, Myanmar

Distance: 125 miles.
Time: 15 hours.

The Myanmar’s colonial-era railways may be creaking under the weight of time, but that’s rather the appeal. The hill railway cutting northeast from Mandalay rattles and shakes across the precarious Gokteik Viaduct, defying the centuries above a seemingly bottomless valley, on its way from the British-era hill station of Pyin Oo Lwin to Lashio, the wartime terminus of the Burma Road. To ride these well-polished rails is to travel through time as well as geography, as colonial bungalows, hill-tribe villages and forest monasteries flash by in a sea of jungle foliage.

Settle to Carlisle, United Kingdom

Distance: 73 miles.
Time: One hour, 40 minutes.

England’s Settle-to-Carlisle line has long been synonymous with the fight to preserve beautiful and historic stretches of railway. But this is no heritage line. Proudly part of the British rail network and served by regular mainline trains, the railway enjoys a double life as a frequent host of steam specials and, even rarer, steam-hauled mainline services. Whether you have the whiff of steam in your nostrils or the hard-working growl of diesel- hauled regular trains in your ears, the views from the carriages are pretty much unmatched on the English railway network. Passengers can feast their eyes on mile after mile of magnificent Yorkshire Dales and North Pennines scenery, interrupted only by stations so sweet you would expect to find them pictured on a box of biscuits.

Fort William to Mallaig by Jacobite, United Kingdom

Distance: 42 miles.
Time: Two hours.

This trip is smug revenge toward Beeching, the man British train-lovers blame for the closure of thousands of supposedly surplus-to-requirement U.K. railway stations and lines during the 1960s. Here, in the Scottish Highlands, wheezing, wondrous steam locomotives from the 1930s or ’40s haul glamorously old-fashioned carriages through a magical middle-of-nowhere without a puff of post-Beeching British Rail austerity in sight. Instead, the view is quite literally storybook perfect: This is the line the Hogwarts Express chugs along in the Harry Potter films, after all. Then there are the superlative- inducing natural assets: Britain’s highest peak, Scotland’s third-biggest body of water and a forest, mountainside, loch-side or seaside panorama to "ooh" over at every turn.

The Trans-Siberian Railway, Russia

Distance: 5,752 miles.
Time: Seven days.

It takes towering ambition to construct a railway across the largest country on Earth. The completion of Russia’s Trans-Siberian route in 1916 made that dream a reality, kindling an infectious passion for train travel between Moscow and the far-eastern port of Vladivostok. Today, the romantic allure of the Trans-Siberian Railway remains undiminished. Connecting some of Russia’s most fascinating cities, spanning mighty rivers and running across mountains, taiga (forests) and vast steppes (grasslands), this is an epic journey. The surprise is that it also provides an intimate insight into Russian culture and hospitality.

Bernina Express, Switzerland

Distance: 96 miles.
Time: Four hours, 30 minutes.

We can wax lyrical about the glacier-capped mountains, waterfall-draped ravines, jewel-colored lakes and endless spruce forests glimpsed through panoramic windows on Switzerland’s Bernina Express but, trust us, seeing is believing. Rolling from Chur in Graubünden to Tirano in northern Italy in four too-quick hours, this narrow-gauge train often tops polls of the world’s most beautiful rail journeys. Beyond the phenomenal Alpine landscape, the railway itself is a masterpiece of early 20th-century engineering, taking 55 tunnels and 196 bridges in its stride. The section known as the RhB Albula Line is listed by Unesco World Heritage – and with good reason.

The Rocky Mountaineer, Canada

Distance: 594 miles.
Time: 37 hours.

Clattering across the wild Rocky Mountains along a pioneering 19th-century railroad, this train journey is all at once a geological field trip, a sightseeing adventure and a wildlife safari. It promises cinematic views of Canada’s quintessential mountain landscapes, plus a bevy of engineering marvels, from dizzying bridges to logic-defying tunnels. And with luck you might even spy a bald eagle, a moose or a grizzly bear – and there aren’t many train trips that can promise that, now, are there?

Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland, Wales

Distance: 39 miles.
Time: Four hours.

Proof that bigger doesn’t always mean better, the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways are the spiritual home of narrow gauge – lines on which tiny steam locomotives putter through tiny stations and wind among the mighty mountains of North Wales. A trip combining the world’s oldest operating railway company, Ffestiniog, and the U.K.’s longest heritage line, Welsh Highland, can be completed in a day. Passing slate quarries and abandoned mines, passengers can witness how the industrial revolution altered the Welsh landscape forever, while at the same time seeing British nature at its most majestic, thanks to the dark forests, river valleys and windswept summits of Snowdonia.

The Glacier Express, Switzerland

Distance: 180 miles.
Time: Eight hours.

No wonder the Swiss are a nation of rail fanatics, with such bang-on-time, ludicrously scenic trains. But if they could pick one definitive ride, the honor would surely go to the Glacier Express. This eight-hour journey from ritzy St. Moritz to Matterhorn-topped Zermatt unzips the lovely Alpine terrain in the country’s south, corkscrewing up to wind-battered mountain passes, teetering across 291 bridges and rumbling through 91 tunnels. The slowest express train on the planet, it intentionally moves at a snail’s pace so as to big up those out-of-this-world views of meadows, forest, falls and mountains – all glimpsed through panoramic windows, natürlich.

More:World’s best destination for train lovers? Switzerland

The Centovalli Express, Switzerland and Italy

Distance: 32 miles.
Time: Two hours.

Often eclipsed by Switzerland’s more famous rail rides, this two-hour trundle from Locarno on the palm-rimmed shores of Lake Maggiore to Domodossola over the Italian border in Piedmont is something of an unsung beauty. Brush up your Italiano to swoon in sync with fellow passengers as the dinky train clatters across 83 bridges and burrows its way through 34 tunnels. The views make for spirit-lifting stuff: waterfalls shooting over cliff faces, hillside vineyards, gracefully arched viaducts, slate-roofed hamlets, glacier-carved ravines and mile after mile of chestnut and beech forests, all set against the puckered backdrop of mountains that are snow-capped in winter.

Lima to Huancavelica via Huancayo, Peru

Distance: 286 miles.
Time: 17-19 hours.

This monolithic two-part Peruvian adventure ushers you through the greatest elevation change of any railway journey in the world: from sea level to nearly 16,000 feet. Prepare yourself to traverse the Andean cordillera, to visit the planet’s second-highest set of tracks and highest passenger railway station, then for the finale of the odyssey, to board Peru’s only remaining non-tourist train to the bewitching city of Huancavelica. In the process, you will pass through one of the most tradition-rich and rural parts of the country, a time-trapped tract of Peru very different from the modern metropolis of Lima from which you depart.

Johannesburg to Cape Town, South Africa

Distance: 930 miles.
Time: 27 hours.

The overnight service between Johannesburg and Cape Town crosses the Great Karoo, a mythical desert at the heart of South Africa and its imagination, where tumbleweeds roll down dusty roads and mountains ripple along the horizon. Formerly known as the Trans-Karoo Express, the train leaves Johannesburg’s razor-wire-wrapped suburbs and crosses the northern bush, hurtling across the Karoo as its passengers sleep and the desert stars twinkle, before emerging among the Cape’s breathtaking tapestry of mountains and vineyards. Finally, an air of camaraderie fills the train as it follows the Atlantic coast towards the welcome outline of Table Mountain.

The Beijing to Lhasa Express, China

Distance: 2,330 miles.
Time: 40 hours.

Linking the futuristic architecture and imperial wonders of Beijing with the dreamlike monasteries and palaces of Lhasa, the Z21 train transports its passengers from the neon lights of urban China to a once-remote land of magenta-robed monks, where the air is heady with the aroma of incense and yak-butter candles. As it chugs westward the train climbs nearly 16,400 feet on its journey to the roof of the world: the Tibetan plateau, where it glides past grazing yaks, fluttering prayer flags, snow-capped mountains and boundless blue skies. On board, passengers slurp noodles and play cards with their bunkmates.           

The Ghan, Australia

Distance: 1,851 miles.
Time: 54 hours.

Cutting vertically across the Outback heart of Australia, straight through the desolate deserts of the Red Centre, the Ghan is one of the southern hemisphere’s most unforgettable train journeys. Inaugurated in 1929, this cross-country train service has provided a vital link between Australia’s north and south coasts, travelling just under 2,000 miles across the country from well-to-do, orderly Adelaide to the tropical, croc-filled creeks of Darwin. Luxurious and legendary, it’s Australia’s elegant riposte to the Orient Express.

Reproduced with permission from "Amazing Train Journeys," © 2018 Lonely Planet.